The July 11 sentencing of Donald Trump for paying hush money to a porn star may be delayed. Prosecutors said they had no objection to giving the former US president the opportunity to argue that he should have enjoyed immunity from prosecution.
On Monday, Trump’s lawyers filed a motion in New York State Court in Manhattan to argue that his conviction should be overturned. The US Supreme Court ruled this week that presidents are entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for their official actions.
Trump faces an uphill battle to get the ruling overturned, as much of the conduct in question occurred before he took office.
But the prosecution’s agreement to postpone the sentencing makes it more likely that Judge Juan Merchan will postpone the hearing and consider the immunity argument.
Any delay in the verdict would raise the possibility of Republican presidential candidate Trump being imprisoned just days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15.
In a landmark ruling on Monday, a 6-3 majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled that Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions that fall within the scope of his constitutional powers as president – but he can be prosecuted for unofficial actions.
This decision virtually ensured that Trump would not face trial before the November 5 election on a separate federal criminal charge related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to these charges.
In their letter to Merchan, Trump’s lawyers argued that prosecutors had presented evidence of Trump’s actions during his presidency in the case against him, alleging that he covered up the payment of $130,000 ($195,100 Australian dollars) by his former lawyer Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“The outcome of the trial is unacceptable,” wrote attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, calling for a comprehensive brief on the matter to be submitted by July 10.
In a response Tuesday, prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said Trump’s argument was “meritless” but that they had no problem giving Trump the opportunity to present his case.
They requested until July 24 to respond to the defense’s full motion.
Trump pleaded not guilty and announced that he would appeal the May 30 conviction after the verdict was announced. This is the first criminal trial against a US president (regardless of whether former or current) in history.
Prosecutors argued that Trump ordered the payment to Cohen in October 2016 to keep Daniels silent about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter until after the November 2016 presidential election, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump denies having sex with Daniels.
According to the Supreme Court’s ruling, prosecutors may not use evidence related to official acts as evidence in criminal cases involving unofficial acts.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the evidence presented in the hush money trial regarding conversations Trump had in the White House and social media posts he made while in office constituted official acts.
These posts included tweets from April 21, 2018, in which Trump called Cohen a “fine man with a wonderful family” and predicted that he would not “flip.”
Jurors also saw a tweet from August 22, 2018 – after Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law by paying Daniels – in which Trump wrote: “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly advise against using the services of Michael Cohen!”
“This evidence, based on official actions, should never have been presented to the jury,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Last year, Trump made a similar argument when he unsuccessfully tried to take the hush money case to federal court.
When U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump’s request in July 2023, he wrote that the payment to Daniels was “a purely personal matter.”
“The hush money paid to a porn star has nothing to do with the official actions of a president,” Hellerstein wrote.
Trump’s lawyers appealed Hellerstein’s decision but later abandoned the plan.